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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Patient-Centered Awareness Month

Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month is an international awareness-building campaign that occurs every October to commemorate the progress that has been made toward making patient-centered care a reality and to build momentum for further progress through education and collaboration. Hospitals and health care organizations around the world are encouraged to celebrate by empowering patients, strengthening their patient-centered practices, and publicly proclaiming to their patients and communities their commitment to patient-centered care.

For the past two years, health care organizations around the United States, Canada and the Netherlands have celebrated Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month. In addition, fourteen state governors commemorated the month signing proclamations officially recognizing the importance of patient-centered care to their states’ citizens.

What is “Patient-Centered Care”?

Although the phrase “patient-centered care” is defined and used in a variety of ways, the essential theme is the importance of delivering healthcare in a manner that works best for patients. In a patient-centered approach to health care, providers partner with patients and their family members to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences.

Organizations practicing patient-centered care recognize that:

A patient is an individual to be cared for, not a medical condition to be treated.

■Each patient is a unique person, with diverse needs.

■Patients are partners and have knowledge and expertise that is essential to their care.

■Patients’ family and friends are also partners.

■Access to understandable health information is essential to empower patients to participate in their care and patient-centered organizations take responsibility for providing access to that information.

■The opportunity to make decisions is essential to the well-being of patients and patient-centered organizations take responsibility for maximizing patients’ opportunities for choices and for respecting those choices.

■Each staff member is a caregiver, whose role is to meet the needs of each patient, and staff members can meet those needs more effectively if the organization supports staff members in achieving their highest professional aspirations, as well as their personal goals.

■Patient-centered care is the core of a high quality health care system and a necessary foundation for safe, effective, efficient, timely, and equitable care.